The Wentworth Watershed Association has quite a bit of property that helps to protect our watershed. While the Heath Preserve protects the watershed, it is also providing educational experiences for Wolfeboro Students. Last week, a group of about 25 students and 3 teachers walked the new trail and saw the various biomes that are along the trail. Last week, the boundaries of properties also got TLC. This included the Heath Preserve and the Square Hill Lot.
The Heath Preserve is special because it is an area with a trail that is used by Wolfeboro students and others who want to enjoy a walk through the woods to the Heath. For this reason, the area has been posted for “No Hunting”. This is an exception to all the other properties that the Association owns as the other large properties are open to hunting. Hunters have been a bit surprised by this but seem to understand what the issues are and accept that fact that they are not supposed to hunt in the area. It is suggested, however, that in hunting season you either make whole lot of noise (such as happens when you take a few dozen middle school students on the trail) or wear blaze orange. Yes, there are now signs, but people have historically hunted there and may ignore the signs. Virtually all hunters obey posted signs but you don’t want to be aimed at by the 1 in a 1000 who doesn’t obey them. Better to be safe than sorry.
Below is a volunteer putting up one of the “No Hunting” signs. Always nice to have helpful volunteers!
The Square Hill Lot is a large piece of land with no easy access. There are no trails on it (other than deer trails) and bushwhacking through steep, thick growth is not very appealing. At the same time, it is appropriate to mark the boundaries of the property so that people know that it has been protected. This property is not posted against hunting, it just has boundary markers. The northwest end of the property abuts Sargent’s Pond which is seen in the picture below. This swampy land helps to filter the water that flows down Hersey Brook to the lake. The Square Hill lot also has about a third of a mile of frontage on Hersey Brook and therefor helps to protect the brook’s waters from development. (Boundary markers for the Heath Preserve were put up previously.)
A beaver dam just below the outflow from the pond has seen better days and the beavers are not keeping the dam maintained. The brook goes out of the dam in about the middle of the picture and heads down to Lake Wentworth.
The picture below shows another volunteer (wearing a nice orange hat so he doesn’t look like a deer) placing a boundary marker on a tree. The property lines have been found using property maps, compass and range finding as well as looking for blazes and barbed wire. In many cases along the north boundary to this property, the barbed wire looked to be 10 or more inches into the tree. The wire had been there for many years as the tree grew.
Other property marking trips will occur when the leaves fall and boundary lines are easier to see. If you are interested in helping you can contact the office. It will be deer season so wearing orange will be a must.